DE-1 29293 961122 Gen. resources for German-Jewish Ancestry
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GENEALOGICAL RESOURCES FOR GERMAN-JEWISH ANCESTRY
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A JewishGen InfoFile
The following material appeared, with some editing changes, as Chapter
XII: Genealogical Resources for German Jewish Ancestry by George E.
Arnstein Ph.D.
In _Germanic Genealogy, A Guide to Worldwide Sources and Migration
Patterns_ by Edward R. Brandt, Ph.D. et al. First printing, April
1995, second printing scheduled for Nov. 1995, Germanic Genealogy
Society, PO Box 16312, St. Paul, MN 55156
---
Jews have lived in German lands since Roman times. In terms of genealogy
the research offers many of the same challenges as it does for all
Germans, but in other ways, related to particularistic religion and
minority status, there are major differences.
The common elements are the scattered and shifting jurisdictions among
bishoprics, dukedoms, and empires. Instead of today's Austria, recall
the Austrian empire which included seaports on the Adriatic, annexed
parts of Poland [Galicia], included Bohemia and Moravia, and also
claimed Hither Austria [Vorderoesterreich] with tentacles deep into
today's Baden-Wuert- temberg and Bavaria. Jews were especially affected
by these shifts in rulers who sometimes taxed them, sometimes expelled
them, and often recruited them as a source of economic development. The
result was instability as well as links and trading patterns which
differed from those of the Christian majority.
Here is an example: There was in the 18th century a Landrabbiner
[regional rabbi] with his seat in Guenzburg in the Markgraftum [County]
of Burgau. His jurisdiction included Hohenems in today's Vorarlberg. And
in Hohenems there are visible ties northward into Swabia and Bavaria.
For that matter, from 1806 to 1813 Hohenems was Bavarian, including the
year of mandated family names, a pivotal event for genealogy.
The Bavarian rule over parts of today's Austria is a reflection of the
rise of Napoleon, which in turn is a reminder that common to all
genealogy is the need to know history and the historical context.
Napoleon did not only extend his sway over many German principalities
but brought with him ideas and innovations derived from the French
Revolution of 1789. He enlisted the rulers of Bavaria, Wuerttemberg and
others as his allies, and he promoted the rulers to Kings. He also
promoted a major consolidation so that the new Kingdoms of Bavaria and
Wuerttemberg, as well as the Grandduchy of Baden were larger than their
nonroyal predecessors. There are startling changes in borders as a
result of the socalled Reichsdeputationshauptschluss of 1803, the end of
the Holy Roman Empire (of which Voltaire said that it was neither Holy
nor Roman nor an Empire).
The rise and decline of Napoleon merely illustrate the importance of the
historical context. For researchers in Jewish genealogy, there had been
earlier events, like the Thirty Years War [1618-48] which depopulated
entire villages. The significance for Jews is that some rulers actively
sought those Jews expelled from one jurisdiction as a means of
repopulating and revivifying their domains.
But even before Napoleon history and geography were important as shown
by the dismemberment of Poland which had a large Jewish population. Here
the three partitions of Poland come into play. In 1772 Danzig and its
region went to Prussia, while Galizia went to Austria, including Lwow
which the Austrians called Lemberg [and today is the Ukrainian Lviv]. In
1792 Poznan and its province went to Prussia which called it Posen. And
in 1794 there was a third partition between Russia, Prussia and Austria,
leaving a Polish balance of zero.
By 1787 the Austrians passed a law providing for family names, as
described by Suzan Wynne in "Demographic Records of Galicia 1772-1919"
in Avotaynu 8:2. In 1919, of course, Poland was reconstituted and
Galicia continues to this day to be divided between Poland and the
Ukraine. It is this kind of historic impact which helps to explain the
scope of the Paul Diamant collection of family histories, primarily
Austrian but including Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Poland. The
collection is part of the Central Archives for the History of the Jewish
People in Jerusalem [usually abbreviated as Yad Vashem].
Given the extent to the Austrian empire, here are some citiations for
the former Czechoslovak Republic which included Bohemia [Czech today]
and Moravia [in Slovakia today]: "The Jews of Czechoslovakia" 2 vols.
Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1968.
More recent is Jan Herman's "Jewish Cemeteries in Bohemia and Moravia
(Prague, 1982) and Jiri Fiedler, Guide Book:Jewish Sights [sic] of
Bohemia and Moravia (Prague
The turn of the century - around 1800 - marked the beginning of
emancipation, a process which also suffered some setbacks as well as
later advances to the point where the period up to World War I saw a
veritable flowering,a transformation of rural peddlers, traders and
craftsmen into a German Jewish bourgeoisie.
For genealogy the Jewish custom of patronymics is important, of first
names followed by the father's first name. This changed when around 1800
various jurisdictions enacted laws which mandated last names for Jews.
The laws were quite similar but not identical; typically they also
called for improved communal records, related in turn to the need of
governments to achieve better control of their jurisdictions. [See
exhibit 1]
Representative of these records is a Familienregister, Israeliten
Gemeinde Buchau - today Bad Buchau in Baden-Wuerttemberg - which
survives only as a microfilm [fro which various printouts have been
reconstituted]. It begins on 1 January 1809 and ends in December 1853,
prepared by Max I. Maendle, Gemeindepfleger, i.e. secretary of the
Buchau Jewish Community [and one of my peripheral ancestors]. Many of
the early entries were prepared almost certainly by the local Roman
Catholic priest, with a focus on families. Since this includes the date
of birth of husband and wife, plus the names of their parents, some
entries allow research back to as early as about 1740.
The format is almost exactly the same as a modern family group sheet;
the same form was used for Christian and Jewish congregations.
Many of these records still exist, largely because of Nazi efforts to
establish racial purity for its own purposes. The Wuerttemberg records
were microfilmed as late as April 1945, when French and American troops
were already well across the Rhine and the end of the Third Reich
clearly was in sight. The few surviving originals and the many
microfilmed records are in the Landesarchiv Baden-Wuerttemberg in
Stuttgart, or care of the Israelitische Gemeinde in Stuttgart.
Because Germany was unified only in 1871, researchers will have uneven
success in various jurisdictions. And because different jurisdictions
vary in their efforts to recall or remember the Jews who used to live
among them -- just a bit less than one percent of the German population
before World War II -- there are uneven results. Today there are very
few Jews in Germany, the majority being descendants of the socalled
Displaced Persons [DPs], survivors of Nazi persecution and displacement,
who did not go back to the places where they had been kidnapped or
impressed or from which they had fled, often behind the Iron Curtain. A
file on more than 11,000 DP's dating from 1945-47 is now stored at
Heidelberg [see below].
Given the slow tightening of the Nazi noose, the majority of the 600,000
German Jews managed to flee and survive. Some were overtaken when
Germany invaded places like France and Holland; others and their
descendants are citizens of Israel and especially the United States.
Between the German tradition of research and scholarship, and the Jewish
interest in history and tradition, there has resulted a veritable flood
of published and unpublished material.
A Gedenkbuch, in two volumes, has been published by the German archives,
an admittedly incomplete listing of all Germans who perished at the
hands of the Nazi regime. Details to come. It supercedes an earlier,
localized compilation by Paul Sauer, Die Opfer der NS Jud- enverfolgung
in Baden-Wuerttemberg 1933-45; Ein Gedenkbuch. Appendix to Volume 20 of
the Archival series. Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, 1969.
Earlier there had been allegations that Jews had not done their share
during World War I. To counter this, the Reichsbund juedischer
Frontsoldaten in 1932 counted some 100,000 who served and 10,275 names,
with additional data for those who died: Die juedischen Gefallenen...Ein
Gedenkbuch. In addition there were specialized rosters like "Juedische
Frontsoldaten aus Wuerttemberg und Hohenzollern" published in Stuttgart
in 1926 by the Centralverein deutscher Staatsbuerger juedischen
Glaubens. There even is a specialized roster, compiled by Felix
Theilhaber,"Juedische Flieger im Weltkrieg" Berlin: Der Schild, 1924.
A major center, devoted to the preservation of Jewish culture and
history, is affiliated with Heidelberg University: Zentralarchiv zur
Erforschung der Geschichte der Juden in Deutschland. D 69117 Heidelberg,
Bienenstr. 5. One of its major activities is a project to capture data
on German Jewish cemeteries; it has not yet been completed and inquiries
are discouraged until the material is published.
Similarly there is the Hamburg Staatsarchiv which has a separate
department devoted to genealogy and biography, including religious
minorities. See for example the article by Juergen Sielemann on "Lesser
Known Records of Emigrants in the Hamburg State Archives" [Avotaynu,
7:3].
There is much less interest in the former German Democratic Republic,
although this is beginning to change. The Zentralstelle fuer Genealogie
in Leipzig has German domestic records which cover Danzig/Gdansk,
Posen, and also data collected, under Nazi auspices by the
Reichsippenamt, for regions like Bessarabia, Bukovina, the Baltics,
Sudetenland, Slovenia and South Tyrol. An inventory, Bestandverzeichnis,
was published in 1993: Neustadt/Aisch, Degener Verlag.
This is not the only legacy of former German conquests and hegemony. A
list of some 1300 Polish and [ex-]Soviet places with records now located
in Berlin was published in Frankfurt: Verlag fuer Standeamtswesen. It is
"Standesregister und Personenstandsbuecher der Ostgebiete in Standesamt
I in Berlin." Coverage and contents are uneven.
There are Jewish museums in some communities while others avoid memories
of a difficult period. Here is a sampling of exhibits and memorials; it,
like the rest of this chapter, has a "southern bias" because Bavaria and
Wuerttemberg have been the focus of my own research and ancestry:
Nordstetten, in the Black Forest, commemorates Berthold Auerbach, a
native son who became a celebrated secular German author, especially
with his Black Forest Stories. He is the subject of a special issue of
Marbacher Magazin 36/1985, to accompany the permanent exhibit at the
Auerbach Museum in Horb-Nordstetten. Relevant, as to lifestyle, are
autobiographical "Childhood Memories from Nordstetten," translated into
English by George Arnstein, in Mishpocha (1991), publication of the
Jewish Genealogy Society of Greater Washington. Auerbach was born on 28
February 1812 as Moses Baruch Auerbacher; he earned his doctorate at
Tuebingen. He also illustrates the then common secularization of names:
"I was born on Haman's feast, the night of Purim...."
Austria. Of general interest is the Institute for Historic Family
Research [IHFF] which relocated in early 1994: IHFF Genealogie
Gesellschaft mbH, Pantzergasse 30/8, A-1190 Vienna. Phone/Fax
011/43/1/317-8806.
There are two Jewish museums in Austria:
o Jewish Museum of the City of Vienna, Dorotheergasse 11, A-1010 Vienna.
Phone: 011/43/1/535-0431. For Fax, the final four digits are -0424.
o Jewish Museum Hohenems, Villa Heimann-Rosenthal, Schweizer Strasse 5,
A-6845 Hohenems, Vorarlberg. Phone: (0043) 05576/3989.
The Hohenems Jewish community began about 1631, suffered expulsion,
returned, thrived and after about 1900 declined. The most famous local
offspring was Salomon Sulzer, cantor, who became an honorary citizen of
Vienna. Much genealogical information was compiled by Dr. Taenzer, the
rabbi at the turn of the century, since updated by others.
Taenzer, Aron, Geschichte der Juden in Tirol und Vorarlberg. Teil 1
+ 2. Die Gesch. der Juden in Hohenems und im uebrigen Vorarlberg.
Meran, 1905. He completed only the Hohenems portion of this book,
reprinted in Bregenz 1982 with additional material. Copies of first
ed. at LBI, NYC and Libr.of Congress.
Goeppingen/Jebenhausen. The same Dr. Taenzer became rabbi and wrote a
comparable history for the Jewish community of Jebenhausen which merged
with adjacent Goeppingen. More recently, Naftali Bar-Giori Bamberger
published a monograph on the Jewish cemetery with many photographs.
Taenzer, A. Geschichte der Juden in Jebenhausen und Goeppingen.
Kohlhammer 1927. He was rabbi in Goeppingen. Reprint 1988, with two
add'l chapters by Karl-Heinz Ruess, Goeppingen: Stadtarchiv, Band
23.
Sulzbach-Rosenberg plans to convert the former synagogue into a city
museum and documentation center for Jewish history in the Oberpfalz.
Haigerloch, formerly in Hohenzollern, has a memorial, has published
three books dealing with their former Jewish citizens, and has
inventoried them in a computerized database. All are available from the
Stadtverwaltung, D72394 Haigerloch.
Switzerland, too, has a Jewish tradition going back at least to the 17th
century, especially in two historic villages on the Rhine between Basel
and Lake Constance. A local association concerns it self with the
cemeteries and in 1993 issued Der Judenfriedhof Endingen-Lengnau, some
400 pages in two volumes: Menes Verlag, CH 5405 Baden, Postfach 5070.
While the memorial and collections are uneven, there is a pre-war,
pre-Holocaust tradition of genealogy and history. The sources are still
plentiful and much of the material has survived the war, especially
because of the success of the Leo Baeck Institute, 129 East 73rd Street,
New York, NY 10021 (212-744-6400). Explicitly organized to preserve the
legacy of the German Jewish community -- broadly defined to include
German-speaking areas like Bohemia -- this archival and historical
collection has filled a Manhattan townhouse to overflowing. It is the
single best place for research and has generated a series of yearbooks
and bulletins which are of pivotal importance. The Yearbooks, published
jointly with the LBI in London and Jerusalem, are in English; the
Bulletin is primarily in German.
Genealogy may well be the most popular or fastest growing hobby in
America; among Jews it is increasingly established, a kind of deja vu
among bourgeois German Jews who often compiled their ancestry, sometimes
in handwritten documents or in books, often privately published. Many of
these have been microfilmed with the largest collection at the Hebrew
Union College library in Cincinnati. Some of these are available through
the LDS Family History Centers with its index of holdings.
For an illustration of the wealth of available material, there is the
work of Monika Richarz, a historian who skillfully mined the archives of
the Leo Baeck Institute and produced three volumes, later condensed into
one:
Richarz, Monika, ed. Juedisches Leben in Deutschland;
Selbstzeugnisse zur Sozialgeschichte (Stuttgart: DVA 1976-82) Three
volumes of 126 autobiographical ex- cerpts from LBI Archives.
Richarz, Monika, ed. Buerger auf Widerruf 1785-1945, (Munich: C.H.
Beck 1989), 51 essays from the three volumes. English version
Jewish Lives in Germany; Memoirs from three Generations. Indiana
Univ. Press, 1991.
For another look at Jewish life, there are monographs prepared in a
variety of academic settings. Bernhard Purin, for example, took his
master's degree at the university in Tuebingen, based on a study of the
short-lived Vorarlberg community in Sulz. This is the town where many of
the Jews expelled from Hohenems sought refuge. Purin's study, which
offers a marvelous slice of Jewish small town life, has been published:
Purin, Bernhard. Die Juden von Sulz; eine juedische Landgemeinde in
Vorarlberg, 1676-1744. Bregenz: Vorarlberg. Autoren Gesellschaft
1991.
The trick, of course, is to find some of these studies, including
unpublished ones, complicated by the fact that Germany has nothing
comparable to the American "Dissertation Abstracts." There are, however,
valuable compilations like the massive bibliography by Angelika G.
Ellman-Krueger, "Auswahlbibliographie zur juedischen Familienforschung
vom Anfang des 19. Jahrhunderts bis zur Gegenwart." D 65183 Wiesbaden,
Postfach 2929: Otto Harrassowitz, 1992. It contains more than 2500 well
organized citations, with a name and separate place index.
Other compilations seek to capture and list all residual Jewish
evidences. Here are two of these:
Schwierz,Israel. Steinerne Zeugnisse Juedischen Lebens in Bayern:
eine Dokumentation. Munich: Bayerische Landeszentrale fuer
politische Bildungsarbeit, 1988.
Hahn, Joachim. Erinnerungen und Zeugnisse Juedischer Geschichte in
Baden-Wuerttemberg. Stuttgart: Theiss, 1988. Detailed list, town by
village, of whatever traces remain of Jewish life in SW Germany.
The Rev. Dr. Hahn's cited some unpublished and published theses and
Zulassungsarbeiten [a kind of senior thesis], like these, cited here
mostly to indicate the variety and obscurity of some of the resources
[again, focused on my personal area of research].
Buchau: Adler, Reinhold. Beitraege zu einer Geschichte der
israelitischen Gemeinde Buchaus von den Anfaengen bis zu Beginn des
Hitlerreiches. (Kreisarchiv Biberach Nr. 961). Paedag. Hochschule
Weingarten, 1973, (Typescript thesis; copy at LBI, NYC, filed under
G=Gemeinden, then B=Buchau.) Also note: Mohn, J., Der Leidensweg unter
dem Hakenkreuz, Buchau 1970. Lists all who suffered, ranging from Jews
to Wehrmacht soldiers who died.
Laupheim: Indlekofer, Sybille. Juedisches Gemeindeschicksal aufgezeigt
am Beispiel der Stadt Laupheim, Paedagog. Hochschule Loerrach/Baden,
1970. (Kreisarchiv Biberach 431). Copy at LBI, NYC. No mention of Kohl
thesis in biblio; contents heavily overlap.
Laupheim: Kohl, Waltraut. Die Geschichte der Juedischen Gemeinde in
Laupheim, Paedag. Hochschule Weingarten, 1965. (Kreisarchiv Biberach
Nr.365) Typescript thesis, copy at LBI, NYC (donated or arranged by John
Bergman, Media, PA).
Aufhausen (Bopfingen): Laurentzsch, U. Zur Geschichte der Judengemeinde
Aufhausen bei Bopfingen. Paedag. Hochschule Schwaebisch Gmuend 1978.
Type- script thesis.
Oberdorf [am Ipf, Bopfingen]: Kucher, W. Die Geschichte der Oberdorfer
Judengemeinde von der Gruendung bis zur Emanzipation. Paedag. Hochschule
Schwaebisch Gmuend, 1976. Thesis.
Schwaebisch Gmuend: Grimm, J. A. Zur Geschichte der Juden in Schw.
Gmuend. Paedag. Hochschule Schw. Gmuend, 1962. Thesis.
Buehl [Baden]: Pieges, H. Schicksale juedischer Familien Buehls. Paedag.
Hochschule Freiburg 1962/63. Thesis.
Hemsbach. Hoessler, H. Juden in Hemsbach von 1660-1933. Paedag.
Hochschule Heidelberg 1984. Thesis. -- Also a 1984 compendium by
students of the Friedrich-Schiller Hauptschule Hemsbach: Documentation
"Traces and Recollections" -- Our Neighbors of the Jewish Faith. 1984.
Ulm. Engel, A. Juden in Ulm im 19. Jahrhundert. Anfaenge & Entwicklung
der juedischen Gemeinde von 1803-1873. Tuebingen University, 1982.
Master's thesis.
Goerwihl, Oberwihl, nr. Waldshut. Fichtner R. and Wegemer, B. Kindern
eine Zukunft; von zwei Kinderheimen in der Weimarer Zeit. Tuebingen
University, Erziehungswissenschaft, Thesis 1986. [One of the children's
home was Jewish].
Haigerloch. Schaefer, W. Geschichte und Schicksal der Juden in
Haigerloch. Paedag. Hochschule Reutlingen. Thesis 1971.
Hechingen. Breimesser, H. Ursprung, Entwicklung & Schicksal der jued.
Gemeinde Hechingen. Paedag.Hochschule Schwaebisch Gmuend. Thesis 1968.
Freiburg im Breisgau. Blad, G. Die Entstehung der israelitischen
Gemeinde Freiburgs 1849-1941, Freiburg University, Thesis, 1985.
Goeppingen, Jebenhausen. Kuehner, J. Der Rabbiner Dr. Aron Taenzer und
die jued. Gemeinde in Goeppingen. Paedag. Hochschule Schwaebisch Gmuend,
Thesis, 1981
Jebenhausen, Goeppingen. Munz, G. Die Geschichte der Juden in
Jebenhausen. Paedag. Hochschule Schwaebisch Gmuend, Thesis, 1963.
Heilbronn-Sontheim. Graef, H., in charge of the project of students of
the Helene-Lang Real Schule and others: Der Juedische Friedhof
Heilbronn- Sontheim, eine Dokumentation. Typescript, processed, 1987.
Ludwigsburg. Gut, B. Die Judenverfolgungen im Dritten Reich und deren
Darstellung in der Ludwigsburger Zeitung. Paed. Hochschule Schwaebisch
Gmuend. Thesis 1971.
Archshofen, Creglingen. Bauer, E. Die Geschichte der jued. Minderheit in
Archshofen. Zulassungsarbeit zur Fachgruppenpruefung in Geschichte 1964.
[Apparently published in 1985 - no details].
Offenburg. Moeschle, S. Das Schicksal der jued. Bevoelkerung Offenburgs
in der Zeit des Nationalosozialismus. Freiburg University, Thesis 1977.
The following appear to be obscure publications or typescripts:
Rastatt: Stiefvater, O. "Geschichte und Schicksal der Juden im Landkreis
Rastatt" in Um Rhein und Murg 5 (1965), pp. 42-83.
Reutlingen. Schoen, Th. "Geschichte der Juden in Reutlingen" in
Reutlinger Geschichtsblaetter V (1894), pp. 36ff, 59-62; VI (1895) p.
64.
Schwetzingen and Ketsch. Lohrbaecher, A. and Rittmann, M. Sie gehoerten
zu uns. Geschichte und Schicksale der Schwetzinger Juden. Schriften der
Stadt A. Schwetzingen 7, 1978. (City archive).
Nordstetten. Wagenpfeil, H. "Manuskripte zur Geschichte der Juden in
Nordstetten" Typescript, before 1988.
Similarly there is much valuable material in obscure publications,
accessible only through diligent searches. The LBI Yearbooks annually
have massive lists, organized by major topics, of books and articles
touching on German Jewish history. Here are some entries I culled
because they are of potential interest for the SW corner of Germany:
Baisingen. Geppert, Karlheinz. "Vom Schutzjuden zum Buerger" in
Der Suelchgau Vol 23:145-168. Suelchgauer Altertumsverein,
Rottenburg am Neckar, 1988. Copy at Harvard Library.
Baisingen. Becker, Franziska. "Die nationalsozialistische
Judenverfolgung in Baisingen" Der Suelchgau Vol 23:169 ff. Copy
at Harvard Library.
Hechingen. Werner, Otto. "Die Juedische Gemeinde in Hechingen
bis 1933" in 1200 Jahre Hechingen pp. 177-97. Hechingen: 1987.
Hechingen. Kuhn-Rehfus, Maren. "Das Verhaeltnis von Mehrheit zu
Minderheit am Beispiel der Juden von Hohenzollern," in
Zeitschrift fuer Hohenzollern Geschichte 14 (1978) pp. 9-54.
Hechingen. Werner, Manuel. "Die Juden in Hechingen" in
Zeitschrift fuer Hohenzollern Geschichte 20 (1984) pp. 103-213,
and 21 (1985) pp. 199-215.
Hohenems (Austria): Welte, Thomas. "Die Hohenemser Judengemeinde
im 20. Jahrhundert." Diplomarbeit Innsbruck 1990.
Publications and Resources
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The German Historical Institute in Washington, DC (and another one in
London) has a fair selection of materials dealing with Jewish interests.
It subscribes to Ashkenas, an annual magazine in German, now in its
fourth year. GHI holdings, by way of illustration, include such standard
works as:
Hundsnurscher, Franz, and Taddey, Gerhard, Die juedischen Gemeinden
in Baden. Stuttgart: Kohlhammer 1968.
Sauer, Paul. Die Juedischen Gemeinden in Wuerttemberg &
Hohenzollern. Stuttgart Kohlhammer 1966.
Zelzer, Maria, Weg und Schicksal der Stuttgarter Juden, Stuttgart:
Stadtarchiv, 1964. Contains long lists which are not quite
reliable, in part because compiled relatively soon after WWII.
Electronic Research
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A resource of increasing importance for all of genealogy is the computer
and its capability for outreach. With a modem researchers can tap into
the socalled Fidonet, a network of local electronic bulletin boards
[BBS]. Several dozen of these carry a national "conversation" known as
the Jewish Genealogy Conference or Echo. There are questions and
answers, exchanges of data including entire branches of family trees,
and listings of citations and bibliographies. The list of theses and
unpublished materials shown above, for example, was available on the JGC
and later was published in Stammbaum.
To be sure, there is the very large "haystack" known as the National
Genealogy Conference, the smaller JGC of which items of German interest
are merely a small subset. With software, however, it is easy to
"capture" all of this daily information, then quickly search it in order
to select only those items of possible interest.
Analogous to Fidonet, there are genealogical conferences -- newsgroups
-- on the Internet, including at least one with specific Jewish, not
necessarily German Jewish focus.
Both of these networks -- Fidonet and Internet -- have German
participants who are Jewish or have Jewish interests. Tentacles reach to
Israel, Netherlands, Australia and other places, with obvious research
possibilities.
A third electronic tool or method deals with CD-ROM. The LDS Church
through its Family History Centers now makes available the Social
Security Death Index as well as the International Genealogy Index [IGI].
Researchers with computers need only bring an empty diskette to a FHC,
reserve some time on the computer, search for missing ancestors or
dates, then "capture" the data for transfer to their own computers for
inspection and possible preservation.
CD-ROM is a growing medium, a means for easy compilation of U.S. Census
data, national telephone files, and other reference materials,
especially those amenable to search by keyword.
A modem also makes it increasingly possible to search library catalogs
from a distance. The Library of Congress catalog is now on line, via
Internet. As an example of how LOC can be used, Peter Lande in the
Summer 1993 Stammbaum published a generous sampling of what he found
simply by extracting all items under the call letter DS 135.
German Jewish Genealogical research is like all others: It relies on
passenger lists and their indices, census records, telephone directories
and communal records. It tends to be easier because Jews are strong on
tradition, thus tend to be more historically oriented than most others,
a generalization which is open to challenge although at least partly
valid. It also is one area where past discrimination has some benefits:
German Jewish data and records tend to be segregated, thus easier to
find, consult and use.
Exhibit 1: Laws Mandating Jewish Family Names
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
from a 1935 compilation:
Austrian Galizia 1774
Austria 23 Jul 1787
South Prussia and New East
Prussia (formerly Polish) 17 Apr 1797
City of Frankfurt [Main] 30 Nov 1807
Grand Duchy of Frankfurt 26 Nov 1811
French possessions on the Rhine
and in North West Germany 20 Jul 1808 and 12 Jan 1813
Kingdom of Westphalia 31 Mar 1808 and 04 Jul 1811
Oberhessen-Starkenburg 15 Dec 1808
Baden 13 Jan 1809
Lippe 16 Dec 1809
Sachsen-Altenburg 20 Jun 1811
Prussia proper (east of Elbe) 11 Mar 1811
Mecklenburg-Schwerin 22 Feb 1813
Bavaria, Vorarlberg, Tyrol
and Salzburg 16 Jun 1813
Schleswig-Holstein (Danish) 29 Mar 1814
Mecklenburg-Strelitz 01 Jun 1814
Anhalt-Dessau 1822
Sachsen-Weimar 1823
Kingdom of Wuerttemberg 1828
Grand Duchy of Posen (Prussian) 1833
Sachsen (= Saxonia) 1834
Oldenburg 1852
For additional resources for Jewish genealogy in general, and several
listed German resources, see Warren Blatt's "JewishGen FAQ", Frequently
Asked Questions, available as a retrievable file via e-mail to
or via WWW at: http://www.jewishgen.org.
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2Nov95gea]bik
Provider: George E. Arnstein Ph.D.
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